#equitable building decarbonization program

Under the Equitable Building Decarbonization Program, California is providing no-cost, zero-emissions appliances like induction stoves and heat pumps to low-income households. The program covers single family, multifamily, and mobile homes and also include other efficiency upgrades like smart thermostats, LED lighting, and better duct sealing and insulation.

Reach 100% renewable energy for electricity and transportation by no later than 2030 and complete decarbonization by 2050 at latest

End unemployment by creating 20 million jobs needed to solve the climate crisis

Directly invest an historic $16.3 trillion public investment toward these efforts

Ensure a just transition for workers. This plan will prioritize the fossil fuel workers who have powered our economy for more than a century and who have too often been neglected by corporations and politicians. We will guarantee 5 years of a worker’s current salary, housing assistance, job training, health care, pension support, and priority job placement for any displaced worker, as well as early retirement support for those who choose it or can no longer work

Declare climate change a national emergency

Save American families money by weatherizing homes and lowering energy bills, building affordable and high-quality, modern public transportation, providing grants and trade-in programs for families and small businesses to purchase high-efficiency electric vehicles, and rebuilding our inefficient and crumbling infrastructure, including deploying universal, affordable high-speed internet

Support small family farms by investing in ecologically regenerative and sustainable agriculture

Justice for frontline communities – especially under-resourced groups, communities of color, Native Americans, people with disabilities, children and the elderly – to recover from, and prepare for, the climate impacts, including through a $40 billion Climate Justice Resiliency Fund. 

Commit to reducing emissions throughout the world, including providing $200 billion to the Green Climate Fund, rejoining the Paris Agreement, and reasserting the United States’ leadership in the global fight against climate change.

Meet and exceed our fair share of global emissions reductions

Make massive investments in research and development

Expand the climate justice movement

Invest in conservation and public lands to heal our soils, forests, and prairie lands. We will reauthorize and expand the Civilian Conservation Corps and fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Corps

This plan will pay for itself over 15 years. Experts have scored the plan and its economic effects. It will be paid by: Making the fossil fuel industry pay for their pollution, through litigation, fees, and taxes, and eliminating federal fossil fuel subsidies. Generating revenue from the wholesale of energy produced by the regional Power Marketing Authorities. Revenues will be collected from 2023-2035, and after 2035 electricity will be virtually free, aside from operations and maintenance costs. Scaling back military spending on maintaining global oil dependence. Collecting new income tax revenue from the 20 million new jobs created by the plan. Reduced need for federal and state safety net spending due to the creation of millions of good-paying, unionized jobs. Making the wealthy and large corporations pay their fair share

Transform our energy system away from fossil fuels to 100 percent energy efficiency and sustainable energy by 2030 at the latest

Build enough renewable energy generation capacity for the nation’s growing needs

End greed in our energy system

Build a modern smart grid

Weatherize homes and businesses to perform energy efficiency upgrades to make buildings more energy efficient and lower energy bills

Electrify homes and businesses

Phase out the use of non-sustainable sources

Regulate all dangerous greenhouse gases

Declare a climate emergency

Fully electrify and decarbonize our transportation sector. 

To transition to 100 percent electric vehicles powered with renewable energy instead of expensive fossil fuels, we will institute a Vehicle trade-in program

Create nationwide electric vehicle charging infrastructure

Provide $407 billion in grants for states to help school districts and transit agencies replace all school and transit buses with electric buses. 

Replace all shipping trucks

Ensure the decarbonization of the transportation sector

Build public transit that is affordable, accessible, fast, and resilient

Build regional high-speed rail

Retrofit dangerous fossil fuel infrastructure

Grants to purchase a new EV

Dramatically decrease the cost of energy storage

Invest in decarbonizing the shipping and aviation industries as soon as possible

Establish a nationwide materials recycling program

Reassert U.S. leadership in research and engineering by marshaling resources across the federal government and institutions of higher education, including the National Academy of Engineering and National Science Foundation

Invest in the Green Climate Fund

Bring together the leaders of the major industrialized nations with the goal of using the trillions of dollars our nations spend on misguided wars and weapons of mass destruction to instead work together internationally to combat our climate crisis and take on the fossil fuel industry

Rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement and enforce aggressive climate reduction goals

Renegotiate disastrous trade deals to protect the environment

End overseas fossil fuel financing

Create a Climate Justice Resiliency Fund to ensure our infrastructure and communities are protected from the unavoidable impacts of climate change

Rebuild America’s crumbling infrastructure

Repair the nation’s water systems

Build resilient, affordable, publicly owned broadband infrastructure. 

Increase funding for roads

Repair freight and passenger transportation networks

Build the 7.4 million affordable housing units to close the affordable housing gap across the country and guarantee safe, decent, accessible affordable housing

Repair and modernize public housing including making all public housing accessible, conducting deep energy retrofits of all public housing, and providing access to high-speed broadband

Retrofit our public infrastructure to withstand climate impacts

Adapt to sea level rise

Protect community cohesion

Increase investments in the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program

Invest in green infrastructure and public lands conservation by reinstating the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

Fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF)

End our National Park maintenance backlog

Make the fossil fuel industry pay for their pollution by: Massively raising taxes on corporate polluters’ and investors’ fossil fuel income and wealth, raising penalties on pollution from fossil fuel energy generation, raise and aggressively enforce penalties., requiring remaining fossil fuel infrastructure owners to buy federal fossil fuel risk bonds to pay for disaster impacts at the local level. Federal risk bonds can then be paid to counties and municipalities when there are fossil fuel spills, explosions, or accidents.

Prosecute and sue the fossil fuel industry for the damage it has caused

Create a National Climate Risk Report

Implement sanctions for corporations that violate our domestic climate goals

End fossil fuel subsidies

Keep fossil fuels on public lands in the ground

Ban offshore drilling

End all new federal fossil fuel infrastructure permits

Require fossil fuel corporations repair leaking infrastructure, including natural gas and oil pipelines and drilling sites

Clean up old and abandoned fossil fuel infrastructure

Ban fracking and mountaintop removal coal mining

Ban imports and exports of fossil fuels

Divest federal pensions from fossil fuels

Pressure financial institutions, universities, insurance corporations, and large institutional investors still invested in or insuring fossil fuels to transition those investments to clean energy bonds through executive action

Place a fee on imported Carbon Pollution-Intensive Goods

Accurately estimate the climate impacts or benefits of all legislation proposed in Congress

Focus the federal government's resources on transitioning to a 100 percent clean energy economy

Require strong labor standards

Provide employers with tax credits to incentivize hiring transitioning employees

Invest in workers and de-industrialized communities' economic development

Provide targeted regional economic development

Infrastructure investments for impacted communities

Ensure an inclusive, comprehensive process from start to finish

Follow Environmental Justice principles

Ensure the full and equal enforcement of all environmental, civil rights, and public health laws and aggressive prosecution of violators. 

Ensure that Green New Deal jobs and job training resources are made available to low-income and disadvantaged communities equitably, and ensure equal access to clean energy, electrification, efficiency, and transportation funding, grants, and other incentives

Focus job training and local hiring to reflect the racial and gender diversity of the community receiving federal investments

Update permitting rules that allow polluters to target poor communities for polluting infrastructure

Ensure that all agencies abide by Executive Order 12898, which according to the EPA requires agencies to “identify and address the disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects of their actions on minority and low-income populations, to the greatest extent practicable and permitted by law.”

Extend civil rights protections to ensure full access to the courts for poor and minority communities to seek legal protections by overturning the Sandoval Supreme Court decision that set an unreasonable burden of proof of racism for claims of environmental racism, including disparate and cumulative exposure to environmental health risks

Follow the Principles of Environmental Justice adopted at the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit

Ensure that funding from the Green New Deal for parks and public lands are distributed equitably in urban, suburban, and rural areas

Fully survey and track pollution in vulnerable communities

Promote urban sustainability initiatives to improve the environmental and social conditions of low-income neighborhoods and communities of color without rendering those neighborhoods inaccessible for future residents of limited economic means

Ensure the creation and implementation of the Green New Deal is accessible to people with disabilities and non-English speakers

Impacted communities, including Tribes, will receive dedicated grant funding

The first two years of this plan will be spent very aggressively laying down a social safety net to ensure that no one is left behind

Ensure Tribes and Native American people benefit from this plan

Invest in Environmental Justice centered community economic development

Incentivize farmers to develop ecologically regenerative farming systems that sharply reduce emissions; sequester carbon; and heal our soils, forests, and prairie lands

Help farms of all sizes transition to ecologically regenerative agricultural practices that rebuild rural communities, protect the climate, and strengthen the environment with an investment of $410 billion

Pay farmers to keep carbon in the soil

Fund farmland conservation

Transition to organic farming

Bring renewable energy to farms

Enforce the Clear Air and Water Acts on large factory farms and ensure all farmers have access to the tools and resources they need to address pollution

Ensure all rural residents, including farmers, and farmworkers have the right to protect their families and properties from chemical and biological pollution, including pesticide and herbicide drift

Break up big agribusinesses that have a stranglehold on farmers and rural communities

Ensure farmers are paid a fair price for their products with tools like supply management and grain reserves

Re-establish a national grain and feed reserve to help alleviate the need for government subsidies and ensure we have a food supply in case of extreme weather events

Transition toward a parity system to guarantee farmers a living wage

Re-establish and strengthen the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration

Ensure farmers have the right to repair their own equipment

Reform patent laws to prevent predatory lawsuits from massive agribusinesses like Bayer/Monsanto

Reform the agricultural subsidy system so more money goes to small and medium sized farms

Strengthen organic standards

Invest in historically underserved communities to grow the number of farmers of color

Create a pathway to citizenship for migrant farmworkers and end exclusions for agricultural workers in labor laws

Strengthen outreach to minority and socially disadvantaged farmers

Establish a victory lawns and gardens initiative through a $36 billion investment to help urban, rural, and suburban Americans transform their lawns into food-producing or reforested spaces that sequester carbon and save water

Invest $14.7 billion in cooperatively owned grocery stores

Incentivize schools to procure locally produced foods

Enforce country of origin labeling

Incentivize community ownership of farmland

This plan is called a Green New Deal. 

So far, a comprehensive progressive vision of a Green New Deal has not been presented. This report articulates a vision for a broad set policy goals and investments that aim to achieve environmental sustainability and economic stability in ways that are just and equitable. 

This proposal recognizes:

A Green New Deal is necessary to meet the scale and urgency of environmental challenges facing the United States, based on the best available research.

A Green New Deal can bring job growth and economic opportunity, with particular focus on historically disadvantaged and vulnerable communities.

A Green New Deal is popular among American voters and can mobilize them in 2018.

A Green New Deal can be executed in a way that is environmentally just and distributes benefits equitably.

A Green New Deal is financially feasible and necessary

A Green New Deal is a broad and ambitious package of new policies and investments in communities, infrastructure, and technology to help the United States achieve environmental sustainability and economic stability.

The original New Deal was a series of financial reforms, farmer relief programs, public works projects, and other social programs enacted by President Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930’s. The New Deal was an economic and job stimulus to meet the needs of the time, designed to put Americans back to work, restore dignity, and bring stability during the Great Depression. Even with its mixed effectiveness, the New Deal was not perfect and displayed an exclusionary racial bias whose effects are still felt today.

America faces different challenges today that are unsustainable and existential.

Despite the achievements in environment regulation over the past 50 years, incremental policy changes and small shifts in market trends are no longer sufficient to meet the scale and urgency of the problems facing Americans and the world today. American lives and livelihoods rely upon clean air and water; healthy forests, farms, and fisheries; and communities resilient to the worst effects of climate change—such as extreme weather, drought, and sea-level rise. The effects of pollution and exposure to toxins persist, and climate change worsens. On top of it all, these all affect low-income communities and communities of color disproportionately.

We need to shift to a new sustainable environment and economy.

Sustainability is about utilizing and preserving resources in ways that meet the needs of today’s generation without sacrificing the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

A Green New Deal recognizes that economic stability is not independent of environmental sustainability.

The trade-off between the environment or the economy is a false one. The goal of a Green New Deal is to build the 21st century economy, which by design will mitigate the causes of climate change while building resilience to its effects, restore the American landscape, and improve access to clean air and water—all in ways that prioritize justice and equity, and grow the economy and jobs.

Environmental regulation and climate action often receive less attention because they are perceived to compete with other local priorities--such as crime, schools, jobs, and potholes. A Green New Deal is not a distraction from local priorities but works to solve many of them.

We agree on the problems, now we need to agree on the solutions.

A Green New Deal is more than just renewable energy or job programs. It is a transition to the 21st century economy. It is a holistic combination of solutions at every level—federal, state, and local—and addresses many problems simultaneously. It does this because it must.

It must meet the scale and urgency of the problems facing America and Americans. It must also meet the level of progressive ambition looking to transform the economy and the environment in ways that achieve sustainability, equity, justice, freedom, and happiness.

This section summarizes specific progressive goals. For complete policy details, download the full report.

TRANSFORM TO A LOW-CARBON ECONOMY

The United States needs to reduce its annual greenhouse emissions from 2016 by 16 percent to achieve our 2025 reduction target communicated through the Paris Agreement[1], and 77 percent to reach our 2050 target.[2] To strive for the global goal of a 1.5-degree future, the U.S. should aim for zero net emissions by mid-century. This requires massive economic and technological transformation in how we create and consume energy, build structures, and transport people and goods. This transformation must accelerate now.

CLEAN & RENEWABLE ENERGY

✔ 100% Clean and Renewable Electricity by 2035

All electricity consumed in America must be generated by renewable sources, including solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, sustainable biomass, and renewable natural gas, as well as clean sources such as nuclear and remaining fossil fuel with carbon capture.

✔ Zero Net Emissions from Energy by 2050

We must end all emissions from fossil fuels. The full U.S. economy can and must run on a mix of energy that is either zero-emission or 100 percent carbon capture by mid-century.[3] This includes residential, commercial, and industrial electricity; thermal energy; and transportation.

ENERGY EFFICIENCY

✔ 100% Net-Zero Building Energy Standards by 2030

Buildings can stand and operate for over 100 years, and current building standards are not in line with goals for deep decarbonization. Yet buildings also have the highest potential for low-cost emission reductions of all sectors. We must start constructing and retrofitting to the highest performance standards now to avoid locking in outdated technology and to reach these goals by mid-century. New technological innovation every year will push the potential of building and industrial efficiency, helping American citizens and businesses lower energy costs and be more competitive.

TRANSPORTATION

✔ 100% Zero Emission Passenger Vehicles by 2030

The technologies already exist; we only need to scale-up charging infrastructure and consumer incentives to transition 100 percent of sales to zero emission passenger and light duty vehicles by 2030, followed with a swift phase out of internal combustion engines.

✔ 100% Fossil-Free Transportation by 2050

To reach decarbonization goals, we must transition away quickly from the use of fossil fuels in aviation, heavy duty vehicles, and rail. Not everything can be electrified, meaning we must innovate and scale up the next generation of biofuels and carbon-neutral fuels.

CLEAN AIR AND CLEAN WATER NEED TO BE A RIGHT  

While air and water quality have dramatically improved in the U.S. since the passage of landmark environmental regulations in the 1950s and 1970s, progress has slowed.[4] Too many Americans live without access to consistent clean air and clean water. Air pollution from vehicles and smokestacks cause 200,000 early deaths each year and led to negative health effects such as asthma and lung disease.[5] America’s drinking water and waterways are threatened by aging infrastructure and pollution from fossil fuel production. We cannot guarantee clean air and clean water without cutting emissions and fossil fuel extraction.

CLEAN AIR

✔ National Clean Air Attainment

Forty-two percent of the U.S. population--over 130 million Americans--live in areas that still have not attained national Ambient Air Quality Standards as ozone and particulate matter pollution are still too high.[6]  While the EPA continually eases air quality regulations, 22 states do not meet ozone standards.[7] Ground-level ozone, or smog, has worsened significantly in recent years as higher average temperatures and more days of extreme heat intensifies smog.[8] Reductions in fossil fuel combustion and certain industrial activities will reduce ozone and particulate pollution across the country, especially in urban areas where air quality tends to be worse.

✔ Cut Methane Leakage 50% by 2025

Methane, a greenhouse gas 28-36 times more potent than carbon dioxide, is the second-largest industrial source of climate pollution from the oil and gas industry. Methane leaks from oil and gas production and distribution cost the U.S. economy approximately $2 billion annually.[9] These leaks are enough to power 6.5 million homes a year. Much of the pollution can be curbed with existing low-cost technologies that can improve air quality and reduce emissions.[10]

CLEAN WATER

✔ National Lead Pipe Replacement & Infrastructure Upgrades

America’s problems with lead in drinking water extend well beyond Flint, Michigan. In 2015, 18 million people were served by water systems with lead violations.[13] We need to remove lead service lines and fix other water problems with a prioritization of underserved communities. This requires meaningful investments in water treatment infrastructure upgrades across the nation. And yet, federal investment in local water infrastructure has declined from covering 63 percent of costs in 1977 to just 9 percent today.[14] By investing in clean water infrastructure, it will stimulate the development of economically-critical projects that will create jobs and increase American economic competitiveness.[15]

✔ Guarantee Access to Affordable Drinking Water

To keep up with the mounting costs of water infrastructure needs, many utilities across the country have been increasing water rates. In some cities, the average monthly cost of water for a family of four has increased 30 percent since 2011.[16] In 2015, 1 in 9 households in Detroit had their water shut off because of prohibitively high water bills. The EPA needs to establish more consistent and comprehensive standards on water affordability, protecting low-income residents from extreme price increases.

✔ Protect Two Million New Miles of Waterways

The quality of our water supply also depends on the restoration, conservation, and sustainable land management of forests and wetlands. The 2015 Clean Water Rule, if fully enforced, would extend protections to two million new miles of streams and tributaries, and 20 million acres of wetlands. Protecting our watersheds and waterways, particularly upstream, benefits our natural environment, human health, and food supplies, as well as enhances the resiliency of our built infrastructure. Waterways and their related forests and wetlands constitute a natural infrastructure that saves money and produces additional benefits such as reduced emissions, jobs, and habitat protection.[17]

RESTORE THE AMERICAN LANDSCAPE

It is hard to envision America without picturing its glorious landscape—whether it is the rolling plains and hills, wide rivers, snow-capped mountains, sandy coastlines, great lakes, or rich forests. The American landscape is not only our heritage but also a vital resource. Our lives and livelihoods rely upon the landscape for food, fiber, minerals, homesteads, protection, wildlife, and recreation. Clean air and clean water are not possible without healthy, robust lands. This landscape is our largest natural emissions sinks, literally absorbing millions of tons of greenhouse gases out of the air annually. We must tend to it.

FORESTS

✔ Reforest 40 Million Acres of Public and Private Land by 2035

America’s forests are 25 percent smaller than they were when settlements began around 1630, and only a fraction of what remains is old-growth forest, while the rest is regrowth of deforestation.[20] Forested lands continue to come back slowly, but it is well below the pace needed. To reach a net-zero emission economy by mid-century, we must reforest land—in other words, the remaining emissions our economy still creates are canceled out by the emissions absorbed by land. Similarly, many forests are badly in need of restoration, threatened by drought, wildfire, and invasive species, which are only exacerbated by climate change.

Expanding forests by 40-50 million acres by 2035 could achieve reductions of 600 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2050. With forests as part of a holistic plan, the full land carbon sink could offset up to 45 percent of economy-wide emissions annually by 2050. [21]

WETLANDS

✔ Restore 5 Million Acres of Wetlands by 2040

Wetlands—including swamps, marshes, and peatlands—are vital ecosystems for all types of wildlife and biodiversity. They support seafood, recreation, and tourism industries; protect American shorelines from storm surge; filter water; and absorb carbon. America has lost over half of its original wetlands.[22] The rate of loss is increasing, and a third of what remains is in poor condition.[23],[24],[25]

SUSTAINABLE FARMING & SOIL

✔ Expand Sustainable Farming and Soil Practices to 30% of Agricultural Land by 2030 and 70% by 2050

A thriving agricultural sector relies upon healthy soil. Healthy soil also supports carbon sequestration, flood protection, reduced erosion, and pest and plant disease control. Beyond the field, the excess use of pesticides and fertilizers affect soil and water quality, leading to such effects as deadly hypoxia and algal blooms in the Gulf of Mexico and the Chesapeake Bay. It also diminishes property values and recreational uses of nearby waters, costing the U.S. at least $2.2 billion annually.[26] Sustainable farming and soil practices are not only practical but also economically beneficial to farmers.

Increasing uptake of key soil carbon-beneficial conservation practices to 70 percent of U.S. cropland could result in an increased soil carbon sink of over 270 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equiv. per year by 2050—this represents half of current agricultural emissions. [27]

BROWNFIELDS & HAZARDOUS SITES

✔ Cleanup Brownfields and All Hazardous Sites

A brownfield is a previously occupied property of which its redevelopment or reuse is complicated due to the presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. There are an estimated 450,000 brownfield sites in the United States[28] and 1,343 sites listed on the Superfund National Priority List, which are locations with significant hazardous material contamination.[29]

Neighborhoods adjacent to brownfields are more likely to be low-income and minority neighborhoods.[30] Cleaning up and redeveloping these sites is not only important for human health and the environment, but it can increase local tax revenues, grow jobs, lift property values, and ease development pressure off undeveloped lands.[31],[32]